Big Life champions innovative conservation strategies, working together with local communities, NGOs, parks, and governments. Together, we strive to protect East Africa's wildlife heritage, including its magnificent population of tusker elephants.

Elephants are smart, and their motivation for raiding crops is clear: survival. In a changing landscape due to everything from development to climate change, every bite is crucial. And some of the biggest elephants have learned that not even a fence will keep them from tasty crops ripe for harvesting.

Our impressive 100 km crop-protection fence has reduced crop-raiding by 90%, but some elephants have learned unique strategies for breaking through and have even begun teaching other elephants their methods. This poses a long-term challenge for peaceful coexistence.

In February, our partners at the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) deployed camera traps along our fence to analyze fence-breaking behavior. The first phase will identify the elephants involved, their tactics, and how these tactics are potentially being shared.

These insights will guide phase 2, starting later this year, which aims to minimize fence breaches through early warning systems and other mitigation measures.

Beyond their fence-breaking study, ATE is also surveying over 2,500 community members to better understand their attitudes towards elephants and identify areas of high conflict, because long-term coexistence with elephants and other wildlife is vital for everyone in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.

By collaborating with ATE, we can support both the local community and the local elephants. After all, when conservation empowers people, people become conservation's greatest allies.